Conventional paper clip dispensers are ubiquitous. A number of both automated and manual paper clip dispensers are widely available to consumers. Each such type of conventional dispenser purports to have certain advantages over the others. Each such type of conventional dispenser also has certain limitations or drawbacks.
Automated conventional dispensers typically offer very fast dispensing of paper clips, often one at a time. Such dispensers generally relieve a user from having to manually pick through or untangle a cluster of paper clips in order to retrieve a single clip. Unfortunately, such systems usually cost more to purchase and operate than comparable manual systems. Such systems typically require electric power, and must thus consume power from either a battery or power outlet source. Furthermore, such systems may require the purchase and use of special, pre-loaded paper clip supplies in order to operate properly. Alternatively, such systems may require labor-intensive pre-loading of paper clips into specialized clips or hoppers essential to automated dispensing. In many cases, only a limited, relatively small number of paper clips may be loaded at one time—resulting in more frequent refills. Thus, overall, the convenient, one at a time dispensing of such conventional automated systems is usually paid for either with up-front labor or monetary costs.
In contrast, conventional manual dispensers are often simple and cheap. Such manual dispensers typically do not require any power source, other than user manipulation. Generally, with conventional manual dispensers, a user quickly loads a small supply of paper clips into some sort of storage compartment—usually with little or no effort given to presorting or arranging the clips.
Most often, however, conventional manual dispensers do not provide one at a time dispensing. A user must manually pick through or untangle a cluster of paper clips in order to retrieve a single clip from the storage compartment. Some conventional systems rely on a magnetic means to capture a small number of paper clips from the storage compartment. With such conventional systems, a user must exert some force or effort (e.g., shaking the dispenser, pushing a magnet down into the storage compartment) to cause the magnetic means to capture some number of paper clips. Again, such dispensing usually does not provide one at a time dispensing, as the user is left to pick through whatever number of clips that the magnetic means happened to retrieve. Repeated manipulations are frequently required. In some cases, a user may have to exert a certain amount of effort to separate a paper clip from the magnetic means.
A small number of conventional manual dispensers do provide one at a time dispensing. Unfortunately, however, such conventional dispensers generally require some amount of laborious pre-loading, such as loading paper clips into a spring-loaded cartridge. Furthermore, such conventional dispensers only hold a relatively small number of paper clips per loading, requiring frequent reloading by a user.
As a result, there is a need for a system for storing and dispensing paper clips that provides certain advantages and conveniences of conventional paper clip dispensers, while overcoming numerous limitations and disadvantages of those dispensers. This new system should provide one at a time paper clip dispensing in an easy and economically manner. This new system should require minimal user effort to load and dispense paper clips. This new system should be able to store a large number of paper clips, reducing the frequency of refills. This new system should be relatively inexpensive to produce, and incur little or no maintenance or operation costs, other than the cost of paper clips. This new system should provide all such benefits in a versatile and flexible manner, such that the system may be produced in a number of different aesthetic styles to satisfy consumer demands.